I distributed all the bean bags and got nice comments. I am now remembering the odd person here and there, friends I see now and then, for whom I should put together more bags. Easy to do. Maybe tonight.

I am meeting someone new this evening, 5:30, for coffee. Someone I found in Yahoo Personals. I was just about to give up on that site. He is intelligent and funny, which is a lot. If nothing else, maybe we can become friends, see movies together. He loves movies, loves good ones, often for odd reasons, like me.

Comments

Personal ads are tough. It's easy to get along on paper, but not in person - and vice versa. I hope your meeting went well.

That said, I almost met my present primary, of eight years, through a personal ad. I liked everything in the ad, except that he liked to dance. I of course thought of club dancing, which I don't like, he ment folk dance, which I do like! We were introduced by a mutual friend a few months later.

We are getting to know each other. I don't want to cause either of us to restrain ourselves any more than our natural reserve restrains us, so I won't be writing up detailed accounts here. I think it's enough to say he's a nice guy, very bright, very likeable, and I am delighted to have met him.

I have met several men online over the past six years or so. Some have never gotten past the online stage. I don't like that. I now prefer to meet in person as soon as possible. It doesn't seem like we really get to know each other when our conversations are only here, on the computer.

When we talk online we do so only at our own convenience. Our online friends don't see us when we are running around madly in the morning or when we are having a shitty time at work or when we are struggling to pay the bills. They get our full attention when we are responding to them, unlike many other people who fill our days. I think we get unrealistic views of each other when we don't get in each other's faces now and then.

On the other hand, these are certainly advantages in terms of getting to know each other at the gut level. I think we can get closer faster in writing. I rather like the idea of combining the two techniques. Not that you asked!